


Prologue

by shiny_glor_chan



Series: Puppet'verse [1]
Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Gen, Infinite Crisis, Post-Countdown, Puppets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-10-11
Updated: 2008-10-11
Packaged: 2017-11-21 04:06:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/593265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shiny_glor_chan/pseuds/shiny_glor_chan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first story in a series about Trickster's puppets that get a life of their own and try to fix a broken universe...with time travel and other comic book plot devices.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> Post-Countdown, during Rogues' Revenge. This is the first part to my 'puppets fix the DCU.'

Getting through James Jesse's Last Will and Testament would have been hard work for anyone who did not know him. Not many people really knew him, except Hartley Rathaway. They had been on the run together for months; it was the kind of thing that forced people to know one another or die. Hartley sighed softly as he decoded the last bits, knowing 'or die' had happened anyway.

_“With all that out of the way, hit up my last place of residence. There's a box full of puppets I want taken care of. I don't know what I want done with them, but it'd be a shame for them to rot like me. As long as that little shit of a copycat doesn't get them, I'm fine with whatever you do with them...”_

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Hartley gripped the last page of James' Will. He could not very well ignore his friend's last request, but the thought of breaking into James' apartment with him only weeks dead just irked him. He had no choice, so he turned to his legion of rats.

“Hey, you three, go check out James' apartment and see if it's safe for me to break into,” he ordered, giving the directions to the rats, hoping he would not have to deal with booby traps or silly tricks when breaking into James' home, though knowing the Trickster, the point was moot; there was no way he would not have left some 'surprises' behind for the hell of it.

* * *

Piper dusted off his now singed cape. Trickster had had a few traps set up, but none that Piper could not handle. The blowtorch at the door had not come as much of a surprise, but his reflexes must have dulled a little for the fire to have caught the edges of his cape. Once in the apartment, Piper ignored the main living spaces. He did not want to see more of the apartment than he had to; it was painful enough to be there to begin with since the place just screamed Trickster.

He quickly made his way into Trickster's bedroom, glancing around to figure out where he would keep this collection of puppets he wrote about. He cautiously opened Trickster's closet, hoping to find the puppets quickly and not run into anymore traps. The closet had no traps, but it had no puppets either. Piper made his way to Trickster's bed, noticing the disheveled striped sheets and comforter. So mismatched, it had to belong to Trickster's bed.

With the covers a mess, Piper noticed a small bit of dark material poking out from underneath the bed. Kneeling on the carpet by the bed, he pulled out a chest with the black material on top that had been meant to obscure its presence. He cautiously opened the chest to find a plethora of hand puppets.

Piper was a bit shocked at how many he had found. He was sure there'd be some of the Rogues, Flashes, maybe Batman for kicks, but there had been some really random heroes and villains made into puppets in the box. He slowly sifted through them, finding one of Axel that had been treated like a voodoo doll. Piper chuckled quietly as he pulled the pin from puppet-Axel's crouch area. After placing the pins on the nightstand, the puppet of himself caught his attention.

The puppet-Piper seemed hopelessly entangled in puppet-Trickster's cape and vice versa. Piper quickly closed the chest, not wanting to see the puppets anymore. He thought of keeping the puppets as a memento of some sort, but he did not think he really could at this point. His decision was made now.

* * *

The next morning, Keystone's Salvation Army received a generous donation to their toy department, a chest full of colorful puppets.


	2. Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Post-Countdown, during Final Crisis. Trickster's puppets get doused with magic and end up in time lab. Now we have multiplying, time traveling, universe-hopping puppets.

The Keystone Salvation Army had a chest of hand puppets. Colorful, pretty well-made, hand puppets that would surely brighten some poor child's day. Unfortunately for Keystone, the new Trickster was trying to hold up a bank near the Salvation Army, only to fail and blow up the said building after running from the bank. It was all pure accident that the only thing to survive was the chest full of hand puppets.

Without a base of operations, the Keystone Salvation Army had no where to keep the puppets, so they sent them to as a donation to another foundation, that brought the puppets to the other side of the world. The puppets had surprisingly stayed together in the chest, with no disturbances until a fight broke out in their new locale, in the Middle East.

“How dare you try to talk to me after what you did?” the newly evil Mary Marvel growled as Black Adam watched from the sidelines, smirking at the destruction his new family member was causing.

Witch Boy rolled out of the way of a bolt of magic from Mary, only to crash into the caravan that had the chest of hand puppets. The chest opened, puppets flying everywhere. The appearance of these brightly colored toys made Mary pause in her pursuit of Witch Boy.

She picked up the puppet of herself, in her old white outfit and grimaced. “Ugh, I look so cheery,” she muttered as Witch Boy sent a counter spell her way.

Before the spell could hit her, she tossed the puppet of her former self aside to cast a spell, so Witch Boy's spell would not hit her. The spells mixed together with bright colors and sparkling lights everywhere. Both spell casters were blown back by the force of the spells. When they pulled themselves back up, they continued to fight, not noticing that the spell had done something to the puppets, sending them far away from where they were.

* * *

Rip Hunter was at his wit's end. He had not known that reuniting Booster Gold with his sister would just make double the trouble. He really should have known; they were twins after all. Before Rip could articulate his frustrations, he was knocked to the ground by a large collection of hand puppets.

Booster and Michelle went to help him out from the pile as Skeets flew overhead, though they did not even bother to hide their snickers. “Where did these come from?” Michelle questioned as she picked up the one of Superman. “These are adorable! It looks like that almost all of the Justice League and Injustice League is in here!”

When the words had tumbled out of her mouth, the puppet pile grew in numbers, making her statement a fact. Booster quietly picked up the Blue Beetle puppet that had appeared on top of the pile. Booster willed his eyes not to tear up, seeing the puppet version of a friend he would never get to see again. Before he could excuse himself to take a few minutes to compose himself, an explosion took out one of the walls. Goldstar and Booster Gold prepared for a fight as the Blue Beetle hand puppet fluttered to the ground with the rest.

As they fought, no one noticed the time rip the enemies had caused that the hand puppets had been sucked into. The hand puppets floated through time, space, and alternate universes.


End file.
